Mission: Interrogate Northern Italy

So, I told you about my idea of interviewing people I meet in Italy and sharing their stories. On my recent trip I pushed myself to ask people if I could write about them and, shocking to me, no one said no. One woman who I am super curious about told me she was too drunk when I showed up at our appointed time but I’m determined to snag her one of these days.

I had an idea in mind – that I would sit down with people at my house over a glass of wine or a cup of tea, we’d talk for an hour with me asking them prepared questions, I’d record our conversation, take a picture, and then write something about their interesting life using quotes. Well, that was not the right approach and I thankfully figured it out before I attempted one of these and made everyone uncomfortable. I realized I just couldn’t bring myself to ask people to let me record them being honest and vulnerable. (There was one exception to this where I recorded a specific part of a conversation so I could translate it later for accuracy.) It also had to be much more organic and natural feeling. And it was. Luckily I started with people who are already inclined to put up with me so it wasn’t too, too scary. The hardest part was saying “I’m a writer,” because I felt like a fraud. But technically, all of us who write anything at all, which is pretty much all of us, are writers. Or so I told myself.

I started out trying to write summaries of people’s lives, but jeez Louise, people are much too complicated to be summed up in a few paragraphs. What was I even thinking? There could be a whole book about each of these lives and I would be first in line to buy it. As I was struggling with how to tell these stories I asked my husband for his thoughts. Usually I don’t let him see anything I write until it is finished and out in the world for everyone to read because I don’t want to be overly influenced by his ideas. Anyway, he read one of my attempts and didn’t like it. I didn’t either. I thought maybe that was just because it was a different style of writing. Robert teased me that really this blog is all about me so shouldn’t be writing about other people. I said, yeah, I know, most things are all about me. But in all seriousness, if I tell someone’s story, it is through my eyes. Even if I am trying to be an impartial reporter, which I could never be because impartial is not how I roll. I decided to embrace that fact and just tell how these people have touched me. And what I am coming up with is a different thing but still valuable I think. I hope I am capturing something human, something true, and something light and beautiful as well.

Probably the most fun part of this project is asking people what their last meal would be if they could choose. It will be part of every profile I do and I think it is so wonderful and telling. Of course it has made me think about my own last meal menu and hopefully you will think about yours as well and tell me all about it.

I will post the first profile shortly and then there will be a few more over the coming days/weeks. I hope you like reading about these people as much as I liked talking to them. I can’t wait to do more.